Allcal App Review – Easy Collaborative Event Planning on iOS

Keeping connected is no issue these days with all of the electronics and devices folks have. Trying to coordinate cleanly is what becomes cumbersome; and while the iCalendar app allows you to include fellow iOS users to share in your events and happenings, it has its owns set of shortcomings: it’s difficult to coordinate with non-iOS users, you don’t always get updates when a calendar event is edited and saved, and it’s just not that aesthetically pleasing.

Allcal App : Event Planning

The app wizards at All Calendar LLC have created AllCal, which is an app that allows you to create groups you want to coordinate with, and events in which they can participate. You invite them to events, allowing them to see all recorded details and be alerted to any changes, so everyone is in the know – and kept up to speed. You spend less time updating and checking up on attendees and more time making the event more memorable.

It’s free and it runs on the iPhone, iPad and even runs on the Apple Watch, so connectivity goes with you, easily. The best part is that although it’s free, there are no in-app purchases or ads – pretty nice!

When you first download the app, you will be asked to REGISTER. You provide an email address and a password, and then you are in. The main screen is title My Calendars, which shows all calendars you have created. At first, you will only have your own Personal Calendar, and should you choose to accept it, a US Holidays Calendar. Each calendar is artfully displayed with a header image that you can easily customize.

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When you click on a calendar, you can then edit the image and add or edit events. This allows you to give the event an image, a name, a description, the start and end dates/times, the time zone, reminders, location, if it repeats, and invites to attendees.

Once you have a calendar with events setup, and you have invited your friends, family and coworkers to events, you can initiate chat sessions on those events. I found this feature to be especially helpful because you can easily incorporate some help early on during event planning. What I found works best was to invite a core set of people – your planning committee – if you will. Set up some initial settings for your event and then hash away at it amongst your core group until you’re ready to release your event to the entire group.

The only thing about this app that I found a bit difficult was navigation. When I got to my personal calendar, and was done doing what I needed to do, I was not sure how to go back to My Calendars page. There was to “back” button to tap. I selected the “menu” icon at the top left corner, which allowed me to select the My Calendars page, but I found that to be extremely awkward.

Outside of that, I am so excited to plan and connect using AllCal. I found AllCal to be a real time saver – something we all could use a little bit of.

About Steve August

Steve August bought an iPhone in 2009 with no idea what it could do to him. Now he is into the world of mobile applications, specializing in writing iPhone app reviews. He writes for AlphaDigits, a website that also publishes Android app reviews. Follow Steve on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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Comments

Thanks for your nice review! I see you figured out how to use the MENU button to switch between the MY CALENDARS and PUBLIC CALENDARS. But as a note regarding hte awkwardness, you can also swipe left and right for this feature, and “pinch” the calendars to close. While we try to make significant functions work intuitively or in the background and not require selection, the current release requires users to play around a bit and maybe watch a quick tutorial, which on our YouTube site at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcVr6CMw6XfWpai8nSxWNzg

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